Everything about Berneetha is bigger mouth, her size, and especially her dreams. And when Berneetha decides to create a community garden on a vacant lot, twelve-year-old Kate Sibleys just got to help make that dream a reality. At first the neighbors think Kate and Berneetha are crazy, but slowly they begin to come around. Graffiti gangster Harlan turns out to be pretty good with a rented tiller. Dr. Chitra Arockiasamy is willing to be in charge of tomatoes. Hank Glover would like to grow corn. And unsmiling Jacob Wasserman somehow manages to get some manure. Slowly, a community begins to grow, just as the garden does. But just as the garden and Kate are both beginning to bloom, a sign goes up; a parking garage will be built on the lot. Can Kate and Berneetha and their friends keep the garden and the dream alive?

Juanita Havill was born in Indiana and grew up in Illinois. She is the author of more than thirty books for children, including Jamaica's Find, which received the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. She lives and gardens in Arizona.
Stanislawa Kodman is known best by her cats, who say she spends way too much time drawing, playing with letterforms, and watching movies, instead of entertaining them during their few waking minutes. The pressures of a muse are great, but such is the life of a cat. She lives in Georgia.